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A Mystery and Thriller film by M. Night Shyamalan set in a turn-of-the-century village in Pennsylvania. The villagers believe that the woods surrounding their hamlet are inhabited by fell supernatural creatures, and fear to venture outside. As an incident leads the creatures to begin antagonizing the villagers; one person must leave the confines of the village in order to gather medicine.

Like most of Shyamalan's movies, the film has a Twist Ending, and a quite controversial one at that; the ending garnered so many split reactions that it's the reason why this movie is widely seen as the start of Shyamalan's fall from grace.

Rumors exist that it was partially inspired by a Young Adult novel called Running Out of Time (note: reading the summary on that page will spoil this film.)

Also note: As this is a suspense film, plot twists come steadily and often. So naturally, this page is spoiler-heavy.

This film provides examples of:

Answer Cut: Kitty Walker professes her all-enveloping love to Lucius Hunt, asking him if he reciprocates. Cut to Kitty crying her eyes out as her sister comforts her.

Bathos: The Answer Cut from Kitty declaring her love for Lucius to her crying on the bed is clearly meant to be funny - if only due to the sheer Mood Whiplash. But at the same time, you still feel sorry for this poor girl who's had her heart broken.

Behind the Black: When Lucius steps out of the boundaries of the village, he comes across a bush of red berries. As he gazes to his right, the camera follows, revealing a creature just barely able to stay off screen. The next shot is from behind Lucius, as he calmly turns around and walks off, with no sign of any presence other than his.

Bittersweet Ending: The movie definitely doesn't end on a happy note. On one hand, Ivy made it back to the towns and Lucius will be saved from his grave injuries. On the other, it is revealed that the elders are leading the villagers to live a life of lie based on their own loss of faith to modern society. Whether or not the park ranger being aware of the Hidden Elf Village's existence is a good thing is also up for debate.

Ivy is outside trying to find Noah during a game of hide and seek, with a major rule being that neither can hide indoors. She has a conversation and a walk with Lucius, who takes her back to her house. She is asked by Kitty to fetch a blanket, and does – only since she is blind, she can't see Noah standing in the closet.

Christop Crane is said to not sit down because he doesn't like wrinkling his shirts. When at a wedding reception later on, Kitty receives a rather large hug beside him, prompting him to express discomfort over getting his shirt wrinkled by a similar hug.

Broken Aesop: On Edward Walker's part, if not M. Night Shyamalan's. His idea seems to be, roughly, that going back to a rural life style c. 1800s will protect their children from the violence their families experienced in the cities. As the film makes plain, though, violence is not absent even in rural, simple communities, and retreating to such a past makes formerly treatable injuries life-threatening. Worse, it requires them to lie and terrorize their children.

Broken Streak: Instantly moved Shyamalan from the next great director of his time to a laughingstock.

Averted by Kitty, who just spits out her declaration of love. She correctly assumes that Lucius is this, just not for her.

The Chief's Daughter: Ivy, and by extension her older sister Kitty, are the daughters of the head elder of the village.

City in a Bottle: The Villagers are beginning to believe this, as the woods that surround their hamlet are surrounded by supernatural creatures. The Reveal shows that they're actually isolated from the rest of modern America.

Close-Knit Community: The story opens with a funeral attended by all the villagers, followed by a big outdoor meal at long tables.

Empathic Environment: In the scene where Ivy and Lucius confess their love for each other, their eyes are connected by a beam of love backlit fog on the nearby horizon behind them.

Engineered Public Confession: Played with. After Lucius walks into the woods, the creatures arrive at night and mark all the doors with red paint. The next morning, the elders read a letter that signed from Lucius that he is the one that caused the incident. Lucius is only seen crying in shame, which is taken as an admission of guilt. Considering the twist ending though, it's probable that the elders planted the letter, seeing as they masquerade as "Those Who We Not Speak Of" and were monitoring his desires to leave the village closely.

Even Evil Has Standards: Invoked. Lucius believes that he, being pure, can travel into the woods. He reaches this conclusion because Noah, who has an developmental and learning disability, shows proof that he has gone beyond the border and come back unharmed. Another character agrees that Ivy will be safer in the woods than he, as she is blind and the creatures will take pity on her.

The Fair Folk: The creatures initially appear to be vengeful spirit-creatures. But no, they're just people in suits.

The Fettered: The elders limit themselves and their subjects' ways of life around that of the 1800s.

Hidden Elf Village: Not only are the creatures that surround the Village malevolent, but the neighbouring towns are full of bandits. Alice even tells her son Lucius, who is trying to travel to a different village, that his father's body washed down the river after two days of being outside of the Village's borders.

Nothing Is Scarier: The creatures are barely seen, the horror instead coming from what the villagers fear they might do.

The Outside World: The blind protagonist is journeying to outside world beyond the titular village on a mission to retrieve medicine despite the monsters. The outside world is actually modern 90s society, and the Elders had only set up the village to appear to be in the 1800s and surrounded by unknown dangers in order to start over and protect their kin from the murders and violence they witnessed in the "real world".

Personal Effects Reveal: How the Twist Ending commences. The Walkers open a trunk full of "forbidden objects" and stare at a photograph of themselves in younger days... wait, is that photo in color? And are those fashions from The '70s???

Mr. Walker, and actually all the town elders in a way. The movie actually deserves credit for not taking the tired path of mean puritan judges who won't listen to reason. True, there are still falsehoods being kept, but they don't resort to physical cruelty, violence and trials to maintain it, and at least a reason for doing so is presented in the end. This is perfectly justified; the movie is actually set in the present day, and the elders created the village as a refuge from the greed, cruelty and violence of the modern world, hoping they could raise their children to be Perfect Pacifist People through example. It mostly worked, as pretty much everyone is kind and empathetic. Unfortunately, they didn't account for the possibility of bearing children with mental illnesses; it's implied that Noah's condition would be treatable with antidepressants, but instead he ends up attacking Lucius and later Ivy.

Also subverted. Mr. Walker strongly implies he chose to let Ivy go blind rather than get her medicine in the Towns, and Noah's parents cruelly and foolishly use solitary confinement to punish him for his uncontrollable actions, making him ultimately Go Mad from the Isolation.

Red and Black and Evil All Over: "Those We Don't Speak Of" are clad in red cloaks with some black accents along with brown beast-looking features. They're costumes. Likewise, red is considered a bad color.

The Elders are so concerned about the village's innocence and purity because they have all been traumatized by modern society and believe that returning to an 1800s style of living will protect them and remove any further personal harm or grief.

Secretly Wealthy: Implied with Edward Walker. It's his name on the huge nature preserve that the village is situated in, and he seems to have some political clout for him to be able to get a no-fly zone implemented for that area. At one point Edward talks of his brother's talent for making money, and a newspaper in the black box reads "Billionaire Walker Shot to Death" revealing his father died, so he very much inherited his wealth and the clout associated with it.

Sibling Triangle: Played with and maybe subverted. Ivy's older sister Kitty is in-love with Lucius, but Lucius is in love with Ivy. When Kitty asks Lucius to marry her, he turns her down and she's visibly hurt by it. By the time Lucius and Ivy got together, Kitty already married someone else.

Tomato Surprise: Edward reveals to Ivy that Those We Don't Speak Of are actually costumes worn by the Elders, and that the rituals surrounding them are equally farcical, as a measure of control so that no-one leaves the town.

Was It Really Worth It?: The elders end up asking themselves this in the end; despite the sacrifices they both made and forced on their children (Ivy's blindness was stated to have been preventable in a modern hospital), and successfully isolating themselves from the outside world, violence sprang up in their pacifist community anyway due to Noah's mental illness. They can blame Noah's death on "Those We Don't Speak Off" to cement the ruse, but how long can it really last? Given the interest of the guards at the end of the film, sooner or later someone is going to stumble upon it from the outside.

Wedding Day: Ivy's older sister Kitty is wedded in the middle of the film.

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